The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-03-18
om,nc! The rebels arc coming Y.

coming! The rebels are coming!-
Her warning camc too latA Too late, also
came that Of tho pickets, who were firing their
guns and rushing hack 10 camp before an aw,
full wave OF men that had rolled out Of the
ccdars on the other side of the cotton field.
A hundred boisterous drums were now max,
ing tho thickets ring with the "long roll
Rachel saw tho men In front OF her leave their
coffee making, rush to tho musket stacks
seize their guns and take their places In line.
In another minute they were ordered forward
to the fence In front If them, upon which they
rested their uliskcts. Rachel rode through,
their line and turned around to look. The
broad cotton field WINS covered with solid
masses OF Confederates, rushing forward with
their peculiar fierce yell
"Fire!" shouted the colonel In front Of her.
The six field pieces to her right split her ears
with their crash. A thousand muskets blazed
out fire that withered the first line of the
advancing foe. Another crash, and the Con-
federates had answered with musketry and
artillery, that tore the cedars around her,
sent the fence rails flying into the air and COW
cred the ground with blue coats Her faith
full mare Shield caught her hoof In crack in
the limestone, and fell with broken leg.
So began that terrible Wednesday, Dec 81,
1862.
Bragg's plan of battle was very simple.
Rosencrans had stretched out long thin wing
through the cedars to the right Of the pike.
At the pike it was very strong, but two miles
away it degenerated into scattered regiments,
unskillfully disposed. Bragg threw against
these three or four to one, with oil the fury
of the southern soldier in the onset. The line
was crumbled, and before noon crushed back
to the pike
Rachel disengaged herself from her fallen
steed, and leaning against sapling, watched
tho awful collision. She forgot the great
danger in the fascination Of the terrible spec
tacle. She thought she had seen men scale
the whole gamut of passion, but their widest
excuses were tame and frothy beside this
ecstacy of rage in the fury of battle. The
rustic southerners whom she had seen at ball
play, the simple hearted northerners whom
she had alarmed at their coffee making, were
now transformed into furies mad with tho
delirium of slaughter, and needless of their
own lives in the frenzy Of taking those OF
others.
"You had better run back, young woman,"
said some one touching her elbow. "The
whole lines going to fall back. We're
fankod."
A disorderly stream of men, fragments of
the shattered right caught her in its rush,
and she was borne back to the open fields
lying along the pike There, as when tur-
bulent river empties into bay, the force of
the current subsidized, and she wos dropped like
silt. The cowardly ones, hatless and weapon
less, ran off toward the pike, but the greater
portion halted, formed In line, called for
their comrades to join them, and sent for
more cartridges.
Almost dropping with fatigue, Rachel made
her way to pile Of cracker boxes by an
hedge, on knoll, and sat down.
Some fragments of bard bread, dropped on
the trampled sod while rations were being is
sued, lay around. She was SO hungry that |
she picked up one or two that were hardly |
'oiled, and nibbled them.
The dreadful clamor Of battle grew louder |
continually. The musketry had swollen into
\ sullen roar, with the artillery pulsating
nigh above it, Crashing volleys of hundreds |
If muskets fired at once, told of new regi-
nents joining in the struggle. Confederate
orisadcs raised piercing treble yells as they
charged across the open fields against the
Union positions. The latter responded with
leep lunged cheers, as they hurled their as
ATLANTIS back. Clouds Of slowly curling
moke rose above thickets filed with mad
lened mon, firing into one another's breasts.
warns OF rabbits and focks of birds Gasheti
tut in terror from the dark coverts in which
hey had hitherto found security
No gallantry could avail against such over
numbers as assailed the Union
light. The stream of disorganized men
lowing back from the thickets became wider
nd swifter every minute; every minute, too
he din Of the conflict came closer; every
minute the tide of battle rolled on to regi-
nents lying near the pike.
A surgeon with squad of stretcher bear
RS came up to where Rachel was sitting.
"Pull down some Of those boxes und fix a
lace to lay the colonel till we can make other
said a familiar voice. Rachel
,oked up, and with some difficulty recon.
lied griny-faced man in torn clothes with
le trim hospital surgeon she had known. |
"Can that be you, DR.. Denslows" she said.
He had equal difficulty in recognizing her.
as it possible that it is you, Miss Bond?"
e said il amazement, after she had spoken to
i'm again. Y
eyes, this is I, or as much as is left of me. =
nd here" and his voice trembled, lis about I
! that is left of the regiment The rest are t
ing about the roots of those accused cedars, v
full mile from here" t.
"And Harry Glen-where is he2" she said.
sing hurriedly from the boxes and passing
ong the line Of stretchers, scanning each {
zee. +
A new pain appeared in the doctors face t
he watched her. {
"You'l not find him there" he said "The i
st saw Of him he was forming handful
the regiment that were still on their feet,
retake cannon which the Confederates had t
lptured. was starting off with the colonel '
re when they dashed away" Q
To be ContIn ued.
ASfOnish HING SuHCQSo y